The Kings Library: George III Collection

At the heart of the
British Library in London, a tall glass
tower - the King's Library Tower - houses books collected by King George
III (reigned 1760-1820). It is considered one of the most
significant collections of the Enlightenment,
containing books printed mainly in Britain, Europe and North America
from the mid 15th to the early 19th centuries. Consists of 65,000
volumes of printed books, with 19,000 pamphlets.

The
King's Library Tower

The
collection's home at St. Pancras is the six-storey King's Library Tower, designed
specifically for the purpose by the building's architect Sir Colin St
John Wilson (1922-2007). Many of the books are on view to visitors
behind UV-filter glass which, together with the environmental control
system, helps maintain appropriate light, temperature and humidity
levels. Behind the moveable bookcases containing George III's books,
there is in fact another row of shelves containing a similar collection
formed by Thomas Grenville (1755-1846). The King's Library remains a
working
library, and throughout the day volumes are retrieved for readers
working in the Rare Books and Music Reading Room.

Formation
and scope of the collection

When George
III came to the throne in 1760, there was no substantial royal library.
The so-called Old Royal Library had been moved out of St James's Palace
in 1708, before being finally presented to the new British Museum by
King George II in 1757. (The Old Royal Library is now dispersed in the
British Library.) George III therefore inherited only small collections
of books, located in various royal residences.

He seems to have
decided early in his reign to form a new
library, one worthy of an 18th-century monarch. The first major step
towards this was achieved in 1763 with the acquisition of the library of
Joseph Smith (1682-1770), who had been British Consul at Venice. This
collection was especially rich in the classics and in examples of early
printing. From around this time, King George's agents attended many of
the major book sales held in London and on the Continent. They acquired
both individual volumes and entire private libraries, benefiting
especially from the closure and dispersal of Jesuit libraries across
southern Europe. Some significant works were also donated, including
examples of early printing as well as contemporary works presented by
their authors.

From 1774, and for the
rest of the King's life,
Frederick Augusta Barnard (1742-1830) was the Royal Librarian. Barnard
tried to develop the collection in a systematic way, and sought guidance
from notable intellectual figures, including the writer and
lexicographer Dr Samuel Johnson. With this advice, the collection grew
to be rich in classical literature, British and European history,
English and Italian literature, and religious texts

It
also
contains many examples of early printing, including a copy of the
Gutenberg Bible (copy printed on paper at shelfmark C.9.d.3,4), and
Caxton's first edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (shelfmark
167.c.26). But it also contained less scholarly material, including many
of the more general periodicals of the day. By the time of the King's
death in 1820, the Library comprised around 65,000 volumes of printed
books, with a further 19,000 pamphlets. There were also manuscripts (now
in the British Library Manuscript Collections), as well as bound
volumes of maps and topographical views (mostly with the British Library
Map Collections).

Although
the collection was first kept in the Old Palace at Kew, it was soon
moved to purpose-built rooms at the Queen's House (formerly Buckingham
House), on the site of what is now Buckingham Palace. It was generally
open to scholars, and even former adversaries such as the American
revolutionary John Adams were admitted.

The
King's fascination
with books extended to their bindings. He established an on-site bindery
which was in operation by 1780 and continued to work until well after
his death.

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Later history of the collection

At the death of George III in 1820, the collection passed to his son George IV, Prince Regent since 1811.

The new king was soon set on rebuilding the Queen's House to
provide a suitable palace, and after some negotiation with the
government, the library was offered as a gift to the British nation in
1823. It was decided that the gift should be placed in the British
Museum, on the understanding that it would keep its separate identity.
After a temporary sojourn in Kensington Palace, in 1828 the books (with
the exception of a few choice items withheld by the King and today at
the Royal Library Windsor) were moved to the new King's Library Gallery,
designed in Greek Revival style especially for the collection by Sir
Robert Smirke. The arrival of the King's Library doubled the size of the
British Museum's printed book collections.

For the next 145
years, King's Library volumes were regularly consulted by readers in the
British Museum's Reading Rooms. The most significant event to affect
the collection during this long period was the aerial bombardment of the
Museum during the Second World War. On 23 September 1940 a small bomb
fell on the Gallery. 124 volumes were completely destroyed, a further
304 were damaged beyond repair, and many others required substantial
restoration. As a result the collection was moved to the Bodleian
Library at Oxford for the remainder of the war.

In the following
decades, attempts were made to replace the lost works, but even today
there are a few gaps.

In 1973 the British Library was established,
and responsibility for the King's Library transferred to the new UK
national library. The books however stayed where they were until 1998,
when they were moved to the British Library's new St Pancras building.

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Catalogues and access

Descriptions
of books and pamphlets in the King's Library appear in the British
Library Integrated Catalogue, in printed editions of the Library's main
catalogues, and over the internet in the Integrated Catalogue. Most
volumes can be ordered into the Rare Books and Music Reading Room using the reading room Online Catalogue.

A dedicated catalogue of the collection (but excluding the pamphlets), the Bibliothecae Regiae Catalogus,
was compiled after the death of George III by F.A. Barnard. This was
privately published in 10 volumes from 1820 and 1829. An annotated set
is shelved in the Rare Books and Music Reading Room in the RAC sequence.
There is also an earlier subject or 'classed' catalogue of the
collection, believed to have been compiled by FA Barnard between 1812
and 1820. This work was never published, and the only known copy is in
the King's Library itself at shelfmarks 102.gg & 103.gg.

The
pamphlets are listed in a separate unpublished catalogue produced in the
1850s. A complete set in 9 volumes is stored at shelfmark L.R.419.b.3.
(A second set in 18 volumes is at L.R.419.b.2, but the first two parts
have been missing for many decades).

Identifying King's Library books

Books
in this collection are shelved in the ranges 1.a.1 - 304.k.23 and
C.1.a.1 - C.16.i.16. Many of the bindings incorporate a George III
monogram stamped at the head of the spine. Examples of King George III
bindings can be seen on the British Library's Database of Bookbindings.
Where King's Library volumes were destroyed in the Second World War,
copies of the same work from elsewhere in the collections were sometimes
substituted. Please refer to the Library's Early Printed Collections
curators for assistance if identifying exact copies is important to your
research.

Further reading

The following works give more detailed information about the King's Library and its history:

'Most Curious, Splendid and Useful: the King's Library of George III', by Graham Jefcoate. In: Enlightenment: discovering the world in the Eighteenth Century, edited by Kim Sloan with Andrew Burnett (London, 2003), pp.38-45.

The King's Library, by EM Paintin (London, 1989). 32p. (Copy in Rare Books and Music Reading Room at RAR027.541).

'The Library of King George III', by John Brooke. Yale University Library Gazette, vol. 52, no.1 (July 1977), pp.33-45. (Copy in British Library stacks at Ac.9726.b).

A History of the British Museum Library, 1753-1973, by PR Harris (London, 1998). 833p. (Copy in Rare Books and Music Reading Room at RAR027.541).